Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum has been making the case to count every vote in nightly church rallies in South Florida, but he may take that case to the courtroom.

“Up until now we have not been actively preparing to file one,” Gillum’s attorney Barry Richard told MSNBC Monday. “But we are receiving an increasing amount of evidence that Florida’s efforts to make the statutes more efficient has been done at the sacrifice of the fundamental right to vote.”

Gillum's deliberations come at the same time President Trump tweeted that Democrats trailing in the vote, like Gillum and Sen. Bill Nelson, should concede because "the characters running Broward and Palm Beach voting will not be able to 'find' enough votes..."

Recounts rarely change election night results and Gillum trails Republican Ron DeSantis by 33,000 votes. The results of a state-mandated machine recount of ballots are due in Tallahassee Thursday. In the unlikely event that Gillum picks up about 15,000 votes that would trigger a hand recount.

The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections told the AP Tuesday her county will miss the Thursday deadline. Susan Bucher cited 10-year-old slow counting machines for the delay. It's also uncertain if Broward County, with about 800,000 ballots will make the deadline. The machine recount there started Tuesday.

The Secretary of State’s office is required by law to forward whatever results are submitted by Sunday to the governor to be certified Nov. 20. A flurry of lawsuits are already on the court docket, but the most contentious one — to contest the election itself — may not come until after the results are certified and winners officially declared.

If the conclusive results are without a complete statewide recount, any citizen that can prove his or her vote wasn't counted could challenge the election in court.

In the disputed 2000 presidential election, Phyllis Brodeur holds up a ballot for observers to see during the manual recount of ballots in Volusia County.
(Photo:
Barbara V. Perez/MCT
)

A court challenge on the "Equal Protection Clause" of the U.S. Constitution could mesh with the Democratic progressive-style campaign that Gillum ran. Sunday at Bethel AME Church in Tallahassee, Gillum explained to congregants his aim was to provide a “voice to the voiceless” and to reach out to those on the “margins of society.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they did (file a lawsuit),” said Aubrey Jewett, a University of Central Florida political scientist who has studied Florida politics for 30 years. “It would be consistent with what they have been saying all along – they want every vote to be counted.”

“If he doesn’t pick up more votes in the recount, he would be an idiot to file that lawsuit,” said Jay Rayburn, a Florida State University professor who has conducted political opinion surveys for 43 years. “It would make him look like a sore loser and it would not bode well for his future.

“Ultimately you want to win the war, but you don't want to lose a battle and the war in the same fight. People don’t take too well to (court challenges) for no other reason than it takes taxpayer money to deal with it. How many times do you have to do this before you say, ‘Okay I give up?’"

There are at least a half-dozen federal lawsuits currently on the docket in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. One filed by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson against the Secretary of State seeks to extend the vote count. A hearing is scheduled Wednesday on that matter. Gov. Rick Scott currently leads Nelson in the Senate race.

Another lawsuit wants mail-in ballots not delivered in time to elections offices to be accepted. A third calls on Scott to recuse himself from the count since he is the governor. Those lawsuits don’t challenge the results, but Richard's comments suggested Gillum could be pondering such a move.

“The conventional wisdom is there are not enough of them (uncounted over and undervote ballots) to overturn the election but we don’t actually know unless we look at them,” said Jewett. “If they don’t finish the count on time we don’t know, right?”

Richard said winning is not Gillum’s motivation for considering all legal options.

“I don’t think he is being motivated right now by whether or not he will turn the election around,” Richard told MSNBC. “He feels an obligation to ensure votes are counted.”